number of ways to the tape. what did he do? he did this. >> first of all, this is a campaign about the 100%. my campaign is about the 100% of america, and i'm concerned about them. i'm concerned about the fact that over the past four years, life has become harder for americans. more people have fallen into poverty. this is a campaign about helping people who need help, and right now the people who are poor in this country need help getting out of poverty. the people in the middle class need help. i care about the 100%. people in america are going to have a better future if they elect me the next president. >> does he think we're stupid? i mean, honestly, does he think the american people are stupid? mr. 1% and now mr. 47%, now wants us to believe he's mr. 100%? three days ago we heard him call 47% of the country victims who

mooch off the government. this is what he said about them. >> my job is not to worry about those people. i'll never be for them. they should take responsibility and care for their lives. >> know my job is not to worry about those people. yet magically, all of a sudden, he's concerned about all americans. gimme a break. governor romney's new strategy, his play for the middle class, his play for all americans, just gave president obama the political equipment of a sledgehammer to go on the attack today. >> i've been president now for almost four years. and -- but the day i was elected, that night in grand park where i spoke to the country, i said 47% of the people didn't vote for me. but i've heard your voices, and i'm going to work just as hard

for you as i did for those who did vote for me. that's how you have to operate as a president. i truly believe that. when you express an attitude that half the country considers itself victims, that somehow they want to be dependent on government, my thinking is maybe you haven't gotten around a lot. the hardest working people they are. and their problem is not -- their problem is not that they're not working hard enough or that they don't want to work. or they're being taxed too little. or they just want to loaf around and gather government checks. we've gone through a challenging time. people want a hand up, not a handout. the people who are not paying income taxes are either paying a lot of taxes because they're working every day but they just don't make enough money overall to pay income tax. or alternatively, they're senior citizens or their students -- i know these guys aren't making a lot of money.

even with some work study programs. or they're disabled. or in some cases they're veterans or soldiers who are fighting for us right now overseas, they don't pay in income tax. and so i just think it's very important for us to understand, americans work hard and if they're not working right now, i promise you, they want to get to work and that's what my economic plan is designed to do, to get more people back to work and to lift up the middle class and people who want to work to get into the middle class. >> this is what mitt romney is up against. it's 47 days to the election. and all of a sudden mr. 47% wants americans to breathe he's mr. 100%. i don't think they make etch-a-sketches that big. not big enough for this one, anyway. joining me now is democratic strategist bob oh schrum senior

adviser to the kerry and gore campaigns who ran in 1994. and michelle coddle, washington reporter for the daily beast and "newsweek" let me thank both of you for being here tonight. >> glad to be here. >> bob, let me start with you. governor romney says he's for the 100%. how on earth can he say that with a straight face? you've run campaigns against him. how could he do this? >> look, this makeover is going to make about as much of a difference for romney as if he changed his name from mitt to matt. he can't be the candidate of 100% of the people of this country. he can't be the candidate of the middle class, because he can't change who he is and where he stands. he wants to voucherize medicare, wants a big cut at the top paid for increasing taxes on the middle class, he wants to gut student aid, privatize social security. these are the issues and positions that have gotten him in such trouble, even before that tape came out.

the tape, however, confirms his character. he's the candidate of the rich, by the rich, for the rich i don't see how he becomes a candidate at the 100%. >> well, trouble is what he's in, because michelle, a new reuters poll shows that romney was seriously hurt by this tape. it says that 43% of americans said they view him less favorably, and he wasn't doing great in the first place, they view him less favorably after seeing those tapes. >> well, romney already had a problem that most americans didn't have a good sense of him, who he cared for or what he stood for. so for a lot of americans, this big hullabaloo was their first introduction to the governor. and it didn't help that even his own team came out swinging at him after this. you know, republicans were quick to pile on. so he is going to have to do a great deal of back-pedaling to make up for this. >> and the fact is, it wasn't some foul play here. he was talking to people that he wanted to donate to his

campaign, a public outing, that someone just filmed. it wasn't like someone was filming some private conversation between him and someone. >> exactly. usually when something like this happens, politicians complain that their quotes have been taken out of context, twisted in some way. mother jones was smart. they put up the whole video, and just showed him talking -- you know, just talking away about the 47%. so that's made it even more complicated because once you get something on video, it can be played over and over, you'll see this in ads, in news clips that, sort of thing. >> and he was using it to appeal to people to give me money. forget them, they're free loaders, help finance me to stand to get these 5 or 10% in the middle. bob, today the campaign for mr. romney announced that they're going to have a three-day bus tour of ohio next week. quote, romney and ryan will tour six cities in the buckeye state monday, tuesday and wednesday, promoting the romney plan for a

stronger middle class. now, no republican has ever won the white house without winning ohio. but how do you go to ohio -- how do you go to the buckeye state that is full of the 47 per centers and turn this around? >> he's pretty behind in the polls right now. republicans will tell you if they're speaking privately that it's 8 or 7 or 9 points. but you know, the thing that's really amazing about this is it's a campaign in trouble. some of the people i think who are getting more powerful in that campaign like kevin madden and ed gillespie are pretty smart. but they're now moving on to the president's turf. because there's a whole raft pulling out there, including in ohio that says who stands up for the middle class and who favors the rich? romney overwhelmingly is seen as favoring the rich, the president overwhelmingly is seen as the person who wants to stand up for the middle class. and the difficulty is, they had a theory of the case that collapsed. the theory of the case was, this

was going to be simply a referendum. we were going to go out there, and the whole country was going to hear romney and he was going to say, if you feel kind of bad, give me a chance, let me take over. that's gone. this election is a choice, and he's now playing on the groundses the president has defined. who stands up for the middle class. >> well, michelle, you know, the romney campaign launched a series of ads this week saying that he was the candidate for the middle class. listen -- just listen to how he plans to bolster the middle class. listen to this. >> my plan is to help the middle class. trade has to work for america. that means crack down on cheaters like china, it means open up new markets. next, got to balance the budget. you've got to cut the deficit. you've got to stop spending more money than we take in. >> and cut the deficit and in his plan, at least his vice

presidential candidate's plan, is cutting into medicaid, cutting into medicare. and i think that the american public has overwhelmingly said, this is the middle class that are being pulled. who understands -- or being polled about the middle class. who understands the problems of the middle class best? 57% say president obama. 37% mitt romney. 20 points. >> and this has been his enduring problem from the beginning. in ads like this, he likes, because he can say cut the deficit without having to get into the ugly details of what that will mean. and, you know, how it will affect medicare, how it will affect all of these programs that when people start thinking about them, they actually decide they like. you see problems with senior voters when you start talking about touching medicare at all. so he's going to have to kind of get in there and paint this picture that people have been waiting for him to do. and it just -- it remains at this point whether he's going to be able to make much ground. >> both candidates were in florida today, bob, where

medicare is one of the hottest issues. the romney campaign just released an ad featuring marco rubio, touting their medicare plan. watch this. >> mitt romney and paul ryan get it. medicare is going broke. that's not politics. it's math. anyone who wants to leave medicare like it is for letting it go bankrupt. my mother is 81 and depends on medicare. we can save medicare without changing hers, but only if younger americans accept that our medicare will be different than our parents. >> but a recent poll by the cbs "new york times" pollsters say 78% of americans want medicare to continue as it is today. they're selling a message that a lot of americans are not going to buy, bob. >> yeah, i think what happened was, they did some polling in florida, they found out the medicare issue was hurting them badly. they can't use romney to go out there and advocate on this, because frankly, people don't like him very much.

so they picked a popular figure, marco rubio, and they're hoping that somehow or other his personal popularity will translate into them gaining some grouped on the issue. when a campaign gets this granular, when you've got marco rubio in florida trying to defend the medicare plan. when you take both the presidential and vice presidential candidates and spend three days in it one state, ohio, what you're doing is signalling the problems you have. they have a big problem in florida, a big problem in ohio, a problem all across the battle ground states. and they'reluti losing the batt for the definition of this election, in fact they've lost it, and as i said earlier, they're now playing on the president's turf. >> bob schrum and carol, thank you both for your time tonight. >> thanks. ahead, the romney campaign is in trouble and they're rebooting. again. you won't believe their new strategy. plus, to say it's been a bad week for the romney campaign is an understatement. and today more republicans are running and new numbers are out

in key swing states. and america, this is how desperate it is on the other side. they're making up stuff to be outraged about. we'll tell you why conservatives are talking about this pirate pitcher. you're watching "politics nation" on msnbc. >> the romney campaign unveils its new strategy. so 47% of you can can skip that segment. >> well, it's fall, you know. unless you're mitt romney, then it's free-fall. >> oh!

have you checked us out on facebook? the politics nation conversation is going all day long. the hit of the day was this picture of the president with beyonce and jay-z at tuesday night's fund-raiser. as robert said, they're brushing

off the haters. and our facebook family was also talking about james meridian who began his ballottle to did he segregate mississippi 50 years ago today. one of our fans leroy said he was part of the military mission that shut down the angry mob that tried to keep meredith out. and says it's a sad experience, but needed accomplishment. we want to hear your stories, too. head over to facebook and search "politics nation" and like us to join the conversation. it keeps going long after the show ends. of more than 550 mis you'll inevitably find yourself on a desolate highway in your jeep grand cherokee. and when you do, you'll be grateful for the adaptive cruise control that automatically adjusts your speed when approaching slower traffic. and for the blind-spot monitor... [ beeping ] ...that helps remind you that the highway

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we're back on "politics nation" with a kitchen sink. yep, that's right. just your standard-issue, stainless steel kitchen sink. why am i showing this to you? well, it's because this image defined governor romney's campaign. over the course of this campaign, he has been forced to use everything in the book. but the kitchen sink. he's gone from plan a to b to c to d to e without any sense of core conviction. just a few days ago, we saw him blasting 47% of the nation. but now he is parading a new plan, a plan to help the 100%. >> my campaign is about the 100% of america, and i'm concerned about them. >> i have 47 reasons why that

ain't going to work. of course, this is a guy who has become quite familiar with plans not working. remember plan a? he was going to run to fix the economy. >> from my first day in office, my number-one job will be to see that america once again is number one in job creation. >> yes, that was the plan. only that didn't stick, because people trust president obama to handle the economy. then he tried plan b. he would go after the female vote, even lining up women at events behind him. but turns out women weren't really buying that either. hmmm. how about latinos? now, at a univision event, he's saying he's not in favor of mass deportation. but that's not working either. maybe it's because of this.

>> well, the answer is self-deportation, which is people decide they can do better by going home, because they can't find work here. you can't have any illegals working on our property. i'm running for office, for pete's sake. >> for pete's sake, that won't work. i know, send paul ryan to capitol hill to vote on a bogus welfare plan. or take president obama's 14-year-old redistribution comment out of context. none of those seem like winning solutions, so now with the campaign in free-fall, with republicans running from his 47% comments, with the campaign desperately in need of a change, after a string of incredible blunders and months of gaffes, the romney team has a solution, another new strategy. are you ready? the solution is more mitt.

that's right. the solution is to just give us more of the problem. more mitt. how is that for a plan? it's the kitchen sink campaign. and time is running out. joining me now is david corn, washington bureau chief for mother jones and an msnbc political analyst, and alicia menendez, host and producer for "huff post live." thank you for being here tonight. david, let me start with you. is the prescription to romney's failing campaign really more mitt? >> you know, at this point, i don't know what it is. i mean, today he also came up with maybe plan g, i've lost track. q, rst? in which he said he can be -- he can come into washington and be the insider that will make washington work. why did he say that? because president obama said that from his perspective, the way to bring change into washington is to put in pressure from the outside.

so earlier in the campaign, mitt romney was the outsider who would come in, the ceo/business guy. now all of a sudden he's the insider. it's like opposite day. if obama says black, he says white. if he says white, he says black. and he's trying to see what's going to happen. of course, the 47% story which i broke this week has put him on -- back on his heels, and now he's -- whoa, no, not 47%, i say 100%, and it just doesn't ring true anymore. the mitt romney who was the moderate governor, business-oriented with a successful private sector career in massachusetts would have been the ideal candidate for this election year. you know, running, you know, as a competent -- not ideological, pragmatic business guy who can say i can do better than barack obama. but that's not what he is. he's not campaigning as his own self. and therefore, he's flailing,

and, you know, the polls -- at least recently, show him falling behind. >> well, alicia, you know, in politico, romney campaign officials are lists this as a strategy seeing the problem. he says, quote, in a lot of current survey data, there's a desire among the electorate to know more about mitt in terms of how he would lead. over the next six weeks, the campaign is going to provide a lot more of that. i mean, really? he needed a survey to tell him that people want to know how he would lead? >> i think they do, because i actually think there was a plan a. that came before all of the other plans you listed, which is that they would simply be anyone other than barack obama. i think they misjudged the electorates' dissatisfaction with president obama, the amount of responsibility they were putting on him for the current economic situation. and so instead, mitt thought he could get by with not talking about policy specifics. you see him last night at a

univision forum, pivoting off questions about immigration simply by attacking the president's record on immigration, when he's pushed back, asked for specifics, whether it be on dream act, whether it be on deferred action, comprehensive reform, things he could really lay out, bullet by bullet, talk about family reunification, talked about an earned path to citizenship, he does none of it, because he simply does not know how to do that, and he's worried that the very things that would appeal to a middle of the road electorate are not going to appeal to his base. >> well, when you say he's worried, let me bring this to you, david. he's indicated that he might not be able to win the debates. he said, i'm quoting, that romney has confided to advisers that it may be hard to win a debate, because every attack against president barack obama will seem stale, while the attacks on him will seem fresher and newsier to a hostile media. >> well, i think that's a pretty good analysis on his part.

i mean, i hadn't thought of that. if you watch the tape we put out, there was an interesting portion, other than the 47%, a lot of clips -- you can see on mother jones.com, in which he tells his donors -- they asked him, why don't you attack barack obama as corrupt -- >> the same night -- >> same fund-raiser. >> tame tape. >> same tape. why don't you attack him for being corrupt and he gives this long, somewhat sophisticated analysis that, listen, we need to win over a small number of independent voters to win in november. and these are people who largely voted for barack obama. and if you go out there and bash barack obama, you're going to make them feel like they did the wrong thing, and no one wants to feel like they were stupid. so they have -- so he says, if we ask people these voters particularly, if obama failed, they say no. if you ask them if they're disappointed in barack obama, they say, well, kinda, that he hasn't turned things around faster. so -- from his own perspective, and this is based on focus groups, he noted, he stuck with this very nuanced way of trying

to figure out how to attack barack obama without alienating people who did vote for him. and i think that's right. if you bring this to debate, he'll have a hard time going after the president for that reason. >> well, alicia, there's something to that, because you notice he's been trying to come off a little more moderate in tone. watch this. >> now and then, the president says i'm the grandfather of obamacare. i don't think he meant that as a compliment, but i'll take it. >> translator: if one of our children or grandchildren or relative, any of them were gay and wanted to get married, what is your advice for them? >> i love my children and i love my grandchildren and i would, of course, want them to be happy. my view is this. that individuals should be able to pursue a relationship of love and respect and raise a family as they would choose. >> now, that's a lot for a moderate. but he's the same guy that said this. let me show you old romney. i'm talking only a few weeks ago, alicia.

>> i fought against long odds in a deep blue state. but i was a severely conservative republican governor. >> now, that was just february of this year. so you've got mr. nice guy now, after playing the way he did in the primaries. i guess he thinks that there's going to be a mass bout of am meesh i can't among voters. >> i think david is right. old-school mitt romney would have been a much more formidable candidate in this election than the mitt romney that we got come south of, you know, the republican primary four years ago and this republican primary. he had to tack so far to the right in order to win that nomination that he's coming into the general electorate in a much weaker position. so there's that. and then there's also the fact they have to be looking at his likability numbers. they continue to be under water. they've been under water in 13 of the last nbc "wall street journal" polls since 1984, the candidate with higher likability

numbers has won. we can have an entirely different conversation about whether that's the right way to elect the leader of the free world, but it's the reality. and people don't like him. and i don't know that giving the american electorate more of him is the answer. >> david corn and alicia menendez, thank you both for your time. tonight. and congratulations, david, your book is coming out in paper back this week. >> thank you, yeah. ahead, more republicans are running away from romney today. plus, the secret tape also revealed a fear of the women on the "the view." >> "the view" is high-risk, because the five women -- all but one is conservative. >> but we've got some news on romney's new personal strategy. and why are conservatives talking about this picture? yes, it's a pirate with the president. and yes, they got it wrong

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we all know the phrase desperate times call for desperate measures, and boy, conservatives are living up to that these days. yesterday with international talk like a pirate day, the obama campaign decided to have a little fun. they tweeted out this picture of

president obama with a pirate and asked, arrr you in? a fun idea. who wouldn't love something like this. i think you know where i'm going with this. the right wing drudge report reposted the picture with the headline, no time for netanyahu as though the president was meeting with this pirate but not the israeli prime minister. and here's what the fox team was hard at work on this morning. >> arrgh, here he is sitting down with a pirate, making sure he didn't forget to mark international talk like a pirate day. >> the president says he has no time to meet with benjamin netanyahu, but the pirate got in. >> the president got a sit-down with a pirate yesterday in the oval office. >> an oval office sit-down with a guy dressed as a pirate. i've got to hear more about that. >> oh, the outrage, sitting down

with a guy dressed up as a pirate. well, there's a slight problem with this. because the picture is more than three years old. it was taken in 2009 as part of a gag for the white house correspondence dinner. here it is. >> but as i said during the campaign, we can't just talk to our friends. as hard as it is, we also have to talk to our enemies, and i've begun to do exactly that. take a look at the monitor there. [ laughter ] >> shiver me tenders, fox didn't get the facts before slamming the president. after the show, they tweeted the picture we aired this morning of the president and the pirate was from 2009. that doesn't sound like much of a correction to me. ahoy, conservatives, desperate times, desperate measures, arr

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we're back with what was supposed to be a great ride, a thrill a minute, right to the top. but it was anything but that. >> some on the ride said, they sensed trouble soon after they reached the top. >> the swing stopped swinging so i knew there was something wrong. and, yeah, i was panicked. >> yeah, we were pretty scared. >> unfortunately, there's really not a lot they could do but wait this out. >> yep, those thrill-seekers at a california amusement park got more than they bargained for when the ride they were on malfunctioned, trapping them 300 feet in the air. >> that poor guy is sitting all by himself. >> too bad for that guy. he had to wait three hours, all by himself. but fortunately, no one was hurt. but this story reminds me of another lonely guy.

mitt romney has been having a very bad week. it started with those secret tapes, but it's getting worse. some of romney's best friends are abandoning him, including his national co chair, tim pawlenty, who announced today he's leaving for a job in the private sector. and ohio governor john kasich, who told reporters in ohio, he doesn't, quote, necessarily agree with romney's statements. they joined a long list of politicians and pundits who are distancing themselves from romney. and then there's the polls. a few polls show romney trailing president obama by eight points. the pew also notes romney is in the weakest position of any previous candidate since 1988. folks, the thrill is gone. and republicans want to get off the ride. joining me now is msnbc political analyst richard

wolffe, author of "revival:the struggle for survival in the white house" and solinda lake. >> thank you. >> have you ever seen a candidate hurting so much at this point in the campaign? >> i'm sure i have, but i've blanked it out. not in a long time. this is the gift that keeps on giving. and then the mistake after mistake in every aspect of their operation. the pirate thing, trying to really argue that barack obama is redistributed. and every day they make these mistakes, no conversation about the economy. >> when you look at he's trailing in three key states, nbc poll, colorado, the president now is up by five. iowa, the president is up by eight. wisconsin, up by five. i mean, these are critical states, and big numbers. >> and add ohio, add florida, add pennsylvania. i mean, this is just unrelenting

bad news. and mitt romney still can't get back on track. and nobody likes mitt romney anymore. >> can he win without ohio and florida and some of these states? >> mitt romney can't. he's got one path to the white house. he has to go through those states. the democrats have a number of paths, but mitt romney cannot win without those states. and he's in deep trouble in both of them. and when you have the governor of the state, kasich, who you were hoping was going to help you deliver the state, denying your comments, you know you've had a bad day. >> but he's got good news, the president is up by three. that's within the margin of error. and new hampshire -- he's up by three. let me go to you, richard. pawlenty is leaving. a lot of people, key advisers and pundits leaving. >> yep. >> how does one, that make him look, and two, how does it affect his campaign? >> the thing about the comments being put to other republicans, the 47% comment, is that it's

become a litmus test of whether you're a serious mainstream republican or not. you never want the top of the ticket to be the measure and a bad measure of whether other republicans can get elected or not. so this has got to play itself out for a few more days. do you or don't you agree with mitt romney that the 47% of the country isn't worth bothering about? that is going to be asked of every single republican candidate up and down the ticket, any time a reporter comes close to them. that's one problem. the other problem is that, you know, the supposed cure-all here, the panacea, is that all he has to do is talk about the economy and he'll be fine. the problem is mitt romney has been talking about the economy for the last 18 months or so. and he hasn't made the sale. it's not just about his plan. the sale that hasn't been made is the idea that this president is to blame for everything. he may be to blame for some of it. that's what republicans would say. but actually, if you look at the polls, people still blame the last bush administration, they blame wall street, there are a number of other people who are just not convinced with this

case that he has been making. and that's the real problem he faces. >> richard, what could he do in the debates on anything leading up to the debates that could turn the page on this and put this back in his ballpark where he wasn't playing the president's game, so to peek? >> well, look, the debates are his last best shot. >> well, what is he doing in the debates? >> debates are a chance, as we saw with john kerry, admittedly a formidable debater, but when john kerry first had that exchange with george w. bush, he moved in the polls pretty significantly. and the race where he had been lagging, he really managed to bring up to a great degree. mitt romney, there are low expectations of him at this point. if you listen to how everyone is talking about him, you think he couldn't tie his own shoelaces. he actually debated pretty with in the primaries. and presidents don't look quite so presidential when they're up against a challenger. challengers tend to look better when they're on stage with the

president. so this is going to even up some. it's not going to go in one direction. there's still some time for mitt romney to even it up. the question is, how far behind is he when he enters that first debate. >> the problem with this celinda is that on the issues, no matter how he survived the debates, he's -- i mean, the issues that people are not with him. other than the deficit, he's losing in it every key area on the issues. >> and the most key thing is, he was ahead on the economy, and now he's behind on the economy. here's the number to watch. after these debates, he has to be ahead on the economy to win. i bet he doesn't get there. i bet people don't see -- think he will deliver on an economy for them, and there are a lot of the 47% who need to hear that he's going to deliver for them. and i think that he's not going to look like someone they like or trust on the economy. yeah, he'll be there for the wealthy guys, that's fine. they're not going let the first president with a swiss bank

account. >> let me get this right, because i'm going to be dealing with that all night that night. he must move ahead of the president on the economy in the polls to win. >> i think that's right. and i think that his debates the last chance for him to do it. >> well, i think that you've given me a way to measure this. >> all right. >> all right. which means all he's got to do is stay mr. president. >> yes. >> corporations are people -- that will -- >> that will. >> celinda, richard, thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you. coming up, those secret romney tapes also revealed he was afraid of the ladies on "the view." now they're speaking out. bob... oh, hey alex. just picking up some, brochures, posters copies of my acceptance speech. great! it's always good to have a backup plan, in case i get hit by a meteor. wow, your hair looks great. didn't realize they did photoshop here. hey, good call on those mugs.

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up next, those secret tapes reveal more than just romney's distaste for the 47%. they also showed something else. romney's fear of the ladies on "the view." that's next. oh, it's so good! if this image robbed you of the great taste of untopped triscuit... goat cheese? come on! this is america! ...sorry. [ male announcer ] 100% whole grain woven for an untoppable taste. [ crunch ]

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to support cell health. one a day men's 50+. there's one part of the now infamous romney secret tape that hasn't gotten as much attention as this attack on the 47% of the country. >> "the view" is high-risk because of the five women on it, all but one is conservative. four are sharp-tongued and not

conservative, whoopi goldberg in particular. last time i was on the show, she said "you know what, i think i could vote for you." and i said, "i must have said something really wrong." >> sharp-tongued women. ouch. as you might guess, the ladies on "the view" just had to respond. >> this is just preseason. this is an exhibition game. if you can't handle four sharp-tongued women, how are you going to handle the country? >> i'm holding my tongue until he gets here. >> romney has now agreed to come back to "the view" next month. meanwhile, president obama and the first lady will make their first joint appearance on "the view" next week. this little dust-up about the "the view" is part of a larger issue for romney. voters want a president they can relate to. romney only seems comfortable in quiet rooms, closed-door $50,000 a plate fund raisers. joining me now is jonathan

partin, an opinion writer for "the washington post" and msnbc contributor. thanks for being here, jonathan. >> hey, reb, didn't know you were in washington. still. should say still. >> how can we expect president romney, jonathan, to dell deal with vladimir putin if he's afraid of whoopi goldberg? >> as you showed in the clip, he was joking. i understand sherry shepard is upset with him. but how can you talk about those five sharp-tongued women on "the view" in a quiet room and then, you know, beg and plead to go on their show in october to continue the ongoing effort to humanize yourself to a country that is just not getting there with you on that? >> but i guess my -- i think the thing that bothered me most about the tape, other than some of the real words that were offensive and insulting is the

kind of tone he's talking to people that he hoped would contribute in a way of us against them, in a way of dismissing half the country, in a way of even taking jabs at the expense of the people on "the view." it's this kind of removed, you know, superior attitude in various areas. but yet you want to be the president of the united states and leader of the free world for everyone you're talking about. >> well, as many people have said, mitt romney is very good at, you know, telling people in the room what he thinks they want to hear. and so you're sitting in a room, in a very wealthy man's home in boca raton where everyone is has paid $50,000 each to listen to you speak. you kind of think maybe they want to hear that the women on "the view" except for elisabeth hasselbeck are sharp-tongued and hard to get along and whoopi

goldberg said she would vote for me, ooh, what have i done wrong. and as you played out, they all laughed at that. so mitt romney in that room and on univision yesterday and probably on the set of "the view" in october is going to say exactly what he thinks the audience in front of him wants to hear as a way of getting their support. whether it's monetarily or electorally. >> but when you look at the polls, when people were asked who connects well with ordinary americans, president obama leads romney by 43 points. question of character. president obama leads romney on 14 points on who voter thinks would make a more loyal friend. president obama leads romney by 13 points on who voters would prefer would have take care of them if they were sick. president obama leads by 16 points on who voters would rather invite to dinner in their homes. i mean, it's -- it's on and on and and on. >> right.

well, you know, rev, here's the thing. like any businessman, he knows, you can go into the room and say what you think the buyers want to hear. but if they're not going to buy it, they're not going to buy it. and as those poll numbers show, the disparity between mitt romney and president obama is stark. folks don't like mitt romney. and we have known that since the republican primaries. poll after poll after poll showed the more people -- during the primaries, that the more people got to know mitt romney, the less they liked him. >> yeah. >> that was during the primaries. and now we're seeing it in the general election. >> well, jonathan capehart, thank you for your time tonight. >> thanks, rev. >> up next, a civil rights milestone. james meredith at ole miss. stay with us. look at those toys. insurance must be expensive.

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50 years ago today, we saw the beginning of a fight against segregation that forever changed the civil rights movement in had this country. on september 20th, 1962, james meredith walked into the campus of the university of mississippi, trying to become the first african-american to attend ole miss. meredith had a federal court order saying he should be allowed to register. but he was physically blocked from enrolling by state officials. and massive crowds that spiraled out of control. and became a national story. >> nearly 6,000 troops patrol oxford to maintain order and arrests amount to more than 200 as smaller disturbances erupt the next day. >> president kennedy addressed the nation, calling on the crowds to obey the order. >> americans are free in short to disagree with the law, but

not to disobey it. no mob, however unruly or boisterous, is entitled to defy a court of law. >> but the crowds grew violent, rioters fired guns and threw molotov cocktails. they hoisted confederate flags in the air. president kennedy eventually sent in more troops to restore order. but not before more than 160 u.s. marshals had been hurt, and two bystanders were killed. through all of this chaos and crisis, meredith didn't give up. and on october 1st, he marched back to campus, escorted by federal marshals and finally registered for class. meredith continued his fight, even after graduating. in 1966, he began a solitary march against fear, encouraging blacks to register and vote. but during the march, he was shot in the back. other civil rights leaders,

including martin luther king jr., took up the march in his name. but meredith soon left the hospital and actually rejoined the march before they finished. his courage helped change a generation. and 40 years after the students riot ohhed to keep him out, he was honored with a monument on the campus of ole miss. today, 16% of the student body is african-american. you see, we live in a nation where change comes when ordinary people make extraordinary steps. when people find the courage to stand up and right wrongs. we don't see the mobs today we once saw. and we don't see the killings that we once saw. but we see resistance. we see the changing of the rules. we see voter suppression, we see anti